The Illiberal! Verse and Prose from the North!! ... Dedicated to my Lord Byron in the South!! N.B. To be continued occasionally!! viz. as a supplement to each number of The Liberal [by William Gifford] |
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[[A letter from a Spectre! ... Why
'tis the hand of Shelly]] |
 | The Illiberal! Verse and Prose from the North!! |  |
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[[A letter from a Spectre! ... Why 'tis the hand of Shelly]]
LORD B.[Breaks it open and reads.]
My dearest Lord, O Lord! I scarce can write,
I have such horrid images in sight:
You'll grieve to hear, I now am doom'd to dwell
In deepest Hades—which is yclep'd Hell.
By fiends tormented, and I fear, indeed,
Unless you alter, that it is decreed,
Bad as I'm us'd, your fate will be much worse
Than e'er befel mule, ass, or hackney horse.
I'll pass o'er that which me, at sea, befel,
Because from newspapers you know it well.
Suffice it that our boat perchance was wreck'd,
And I with all my sins to Hades pack'd;
You know I had but little faith in Heaven,
And, therefore, could not hope to be forgiven:
But, if you would avoid my hapless fate,
Seek, seek forgiveness, ere it be too late.
I died—and Charon took me in his boat,
To pass me o'er the Styx; we got afloat,
To go, I knew not where....he kept his course;
His boat went downwards, though he plied no force.
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It seem'd as it were drawn by mere attraction,
Till we had pass'd the dark unfathom'd lake,
When I beheld what tongue can never speak.
God help me! I exclaim'd in supplication,—
It was a kind of prayer, ejaculation;
The first that ever from my lips had flown;
For, when on Earth, I never God had known.
I, too, rejected Christ, and all his works!
And had as little faith as Jews or Turks;
And thus bequeathed myself, without restriction,
“The eternity of Hell's hot jurisdiction.”
As we drew near, I look'd with eager sight,
And, oh! what scenes of horror did affright;
All kinds of reptiles, mingled in a mass,
Were spread upon the shore I had to pass;
And fiends of a most horrid aspect stood,
Ready to hurl me in this living flood
Of serpents, vipers, all the venom'd breed,
That swim in water, or on earth that feed.
Then Charon forced me on the horrid shore,
And yelling fiends, with castigation, bore
Me onward, howling, till at length we came
To an abyss which spouted massive flame;
Then hurl'd me in—and I endure such ill,
As, though it tortures me, will never kill!
Such is my fate, and will be of that man,
Who does reject Jehovah's mighty plan.
And 'tis permitted thus...that I to thee,
A Warning and a Monitor should be.
| The Illiberal! Verse and Prose from the North!! | |